Welcome to the sports media podcast.

I'm your host, Richard Deich. My producer is Patrick Antonetti.

One guest this week, a guest that has been on this podcast many times.

And when it comes to significant ESPN news, there is nobody else I want to invite more than

James Andrew Miller, the bestselling author of books on CAA, Saturday Night Live, HBO. And of course,

ESPN. Jim Miller, welcome back. Hey, good morning. Thank you for waking up early where you are, Jim.

I appreciate that. Okay, listen, you know, you've been an ESPNologist for decades. You wrote the definitive book on the company, in my opinion. And one of the characters, if that's the right word, or one of the subjects who is in your book significantly was norby williamson and last week

norby williamson one of the most significant influential sports media executives uh had his hand

in almost all parts of the espn's content and business areas programming production news production, news, work there for decades.

Company announces, Norby Williamson will no longer be working at the company effective

immediately when they put that announcement out.

So let's go broad here.

What does this mean?

I think, first and foremost, it is a new kind of era for many of the people at ESPN.

That's not to say that Norby is more important than Jimmy Petaro or Burke Magnus or many other senior executives above him. But I think that for a lot of the majority of employees there, he's been a presence,

as you said, for four decades.

And if you're on team, Norby, you felt very comforted having him as a leader.

And if you weren't, I think you're probably

relieved because Norby, as sharp elbows, he's been a survivor. He survived many, many different

regimes. And if you think back on it, this was always like a hearty perennial.

Will Norby survive this or will Norby survive this?

And this one took over and what does that mean for Norby?

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